2012 BMW X5 — Complaint #1543805
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:BELTS AND ASSOCIATED PULLEYS filed February 28, 2019
NHTSA complaint #1543805 (ODI reference 11183104) concerns a 2012 BMW X5 and was filed on February 28, 2019. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 27, 2019. The vehicle had 111,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:belts and associated pulleys, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same BMW X5 cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline:belts and associated pulleys failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2012 BMW X5 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 BMW X5. WHILE DRIVING 10-20 MPH, THE CONTACT HEARD AN ABNORMAL CLUNKING NOISE. THE CONTACT LOOKED UNDER THE HOOD AND NOTICED THAT THE BELTS WERE LOOSE. IN ADDITION, THE STEERING WHEEL WAS DIFFICULT TO TURN AND THE BATTERY INDICATOR WAS ILLUMINATED. THE LOCAL DEALER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO AN INDEPENDENT MECHANIC WHO STATED THAT THE IDLER PULLEY WAS FRACTURED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT CONTACTED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 111,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1543805 |
| ODI Number | 11183104 |
| Date Filed | February 28, 2019 |
| Failure Date | February 27, 2019 |
| VIN | 5UXZW0C54CL |
Similar ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE:BELTS AND ASSOCIATED PULLEYS Complaints for 2012 BMW X5
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 BMW X5. WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 10 MPH, THE CONTACT HEARD A POPPING SOUND. THE BATTERY WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED AND THE STEERING WHEEL BECAME VERY DIFFICULT TO TUR
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 BMW X5. WHILE THE CONTACT'S WIFE WAS DRIVING 20 MPH, SHE TURNED THE STEERING WHEEL TO THE LEFT AND HEARD AN ABNORMAL NOISE. THE STEERING WHEEL SEIZED. THE CONTACT STATED TH
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.